A Royal Misunderstanding
by Tete93
Summary: Adrien knew saving Marinette's contact information under the nickname he gave her as Chat Noir wasn't his brightest idea, but in his defense, he never thought his cousin would see it. A.K.A: That one time Félix ruined everyone's life, including his own, by accidentally making Marinette believe he was Chat Noir. Adrien/Marinette, Félix/Bridgette.
1. Chapter 1

I want to thank **Rasiaa** for being my beta, from the bottom of my heart: Thank you!

 **Disclaimer:** I own nothing, and I make no profit writing this.

See the end of the chapter for more notes.

 **Chapter 1**

Adrien was thrilled when his dad allowed him to stay over Félix's house. Partly because he loved his cousin and they hung out less often than they would like to, since both of them had quite busy schedules, and partly because Félix's parents were warmer and more present than Gabriel (and doesn't that say something about Gabriel since both of Félix parents were politicians). But mostly it was because Félix had a giant bathtub that Adrien could spend hours in.

After the longest bath he had ever taken, Adrien got out of the bathroom to find Félix holding something that looked a lot like Adrien's phone.

"Dupain-Cheng called while you were taking a bath. She needed to speak to you about a history project. I took the liberty to inform her you were unable to take the call at the moment and I promised you will return her call."

For some reason Félix sounded extremely amused. This was unsettling to say the least, since Félix rarely ever let his voice or face show any emotion.

"Thank you, I'll call her back."

"When you do it, give the princess my regards," replied Félix, returning Adrien's phone.

Adrien was confused for a second until he unlock his phone to find the most recent call in his phone log. Thirteen minutes ago he had received a call from "Princess."

Adrien knew saving Marinette's contact information under the nickname he gave her as Chat Noir wasn't his brightest idea, but in his defense, he never thought someone else would see it.

The room felt very hot all of sudden. Curse his pale skin for it was impossible to hide a blush.

"It's not like that," he said vehemently.

"Like what?"

"We're just friends."

Félix just raised an eyebrow, giving Adrien his bitch-face number 5, the one that says 'Do you think I'm stupid?'

In previous occasions Adrien have been accused by Félix of having a crush on Marinette. Félix was not wrong. Adrien did have a crush on Marinette. How could he not? She was amazing, brave, talented, and gorgeous. Actually, she was one of the cutest girls he had ever met. So, of course, he had a crush on Marinette.

Problem was, he was deeply, irremediably in love with Ladybug. And that was not likely to change anytime soon. He was not some kind of two-timing jerk who would pursue Marinette while he loved another girl. Marinette deserved somebody who was totally devoted to her. So he had decided a long time ago to not act on his feelings for her.

Of course he couldn't explain this to Félix; if he told him he was in love with someone else Félix would ask who. Since his cousin didn't know Adrien was Chat Noir, he just couldn't tell him it was Ladybug. If he did, Félix would just dismiss his love for Ladybug as a celebrity crush. And he just couldn't tell Félix it was a girl he worked with - like he had told Nino ages ago - because, unlike Nino, Félix did know his co-workers. Ergo, the easiest way out was insisting he and Marinette were just friends.

"So, you have pet-names for all your friends? Or they are reserved for quite attractive female friends who you absolutely do not have a crush on?"

"It's not a 'pet-name', it's a nickname. What? Giving a nickname to my friend is now a crime?" Even Adrien noticed he sounded way more defensive than he intended it.

"Then, surely you will not mind if I start calling her 'Princess' as well," replied Félix, smirking.

"You… um… what?" Yes, he would mind a lot, honestly.

"I mean it is just an innocent, friendly nickname, right?"

As much as Adrien loved his cousin, sometimes he just wanted to punch him right in the face. Would it really be that bad if he did? Nobody would hold it against him; everybody who has met Félix had wanted to punch him at some point or another.

"Just, shut up," said Adrien, before returning Marinette's call. How dare Félix to tease Adrien about his love life anyway? It was not like Félix's love life was any better. He has been in love with Marinette's cousin since forever, but for some reason he kept rejecting poor Bridgette's advances. He obviously knew nothing about girls and love.

Adrien wasn't naïve enough to believe Félix will forget about the princess thing anytime soon. From that day on, every time Félix mentioned Marinette he called her princess. That went on for months. Thankfully, he still called her Dupain-Cheng when he was talking to her. Félix and Marinette didn't see each other very often, just a handful of times in the last few months.

Adrien wondered what would happen if one day Félix called Marinette "Princess" while talking to her. She'd probably want to know where he got the nickname from, and when Félix would tell her, she would figure out that Adrien was Chat Noir. Ladybug would skin him alive for exposing his identity.

Adrien knew Félix will grow bored of the nickname sooner or later. He just really hoped it was sooner rather than later, preferably before accidentally revealing Adrien's identity.

* * *

Marinette was bored.

Is not that Bridgette's birthday party was boring, per se. Bridgette was a popular girl, almost her whole school showed up to celebrate her 16th birthday. Music was cool, the food was delicious. Problem was, since Bridgette went to another school, Marinette didn't know anybody. The only people she knew from the guest list were Félix and Adrien (who Bridgette was not actually close friends with; they were more like mutual through Félix and Marinette).

Sadly Adrien didn't show up; apparently he had to be at another event with his dad. Bridgette was dancing with Félix and Marinette didn't want to interrupt, and since there were no other people she knew at the party, she was incredibly bored. She had decided to text her father to pick her up. Besides, the next night she had patrol, so at least she should try to have some good sleep tonight. Her dad texted her back that he'll be there in a few minutes.

While she waited for her dad to come, she was sitting in a table watching the people on the dance floor.

Bridgette looked incredibly happy dancing with Félix. Everybody was shocked when Félix asked her to dance with him since he had claimed several times in the past that he hated dancing (or any other source of fun and joy). Seriously, that boy was like a bitter eighty years old man trapped in a sixteen years old's body.

Félix has showed up a couple of hours after the party started, claiming he was late because he was still deciding whether to come or not, and ultimately decided to because he was bored in his house. Marinette knew that was a blatant lie. She knew from a reliable source (she overheard Adrien,) that Félix had spent the last couple of weeks freaking out over getting the perfect gift for Bridgette.

Marinette didn't know why Félix kept playing hard to get; it was obvious that he was head over heels in love with Bridgette, and everyone and their mother (including Félix) knew Bridgette had a crush on him too. Those two should just start dating already.

Marinette was lost in her thoughts when her phone rang with a text from her dad, telling her he was at the front door. Figuring she at least ought to say goodbye to her cousin, she went where she was dancing with Félix.

"Hey Bri! My dad's here to pick me up."

"This early?" Bridgette asked with a hint of sadness. Marinette felt slightly guilty, but not enough to stay in a party where she knew no one.

"Yeah, I've stuff to do early in the morning, so…"

"Oh, right. Okay. See you Mari."

"See you Bri. Happy Birthday! Text me when you open your gift, I hope you like it." She really did, she had spent weeks sewing that dress.

"I'm sure I will. It's yours after all."

"You sap."

"Tell Aunt Sabine and Uncle Tom that I say hi."

"I'll tell them." Marinette hugged her cousin, and then she turned to Félix. who was texting somebody - probably his personal assistant or something - and said, "Bye Félix."

"Farewell, Princess!" he replied, without looking up from his phone, missing the identical looks of shock on the girls' faces.

Both girls excused themselves, leaving a very confused Félix on the dance floor.

* * *

Bridgette felt like throwing up. Maybe she had heard him wrong, because there was no way, NO WAY, that Félix 'I-call-everyone-by-their-last-name' Agreste, had just called Marinette 'Princess.'

They had been in school together for several years and Félix only called her Cheng, except for that one time she was caught in an akuma attack. She got a concussion, so Félix took her to the hospital and called her 'Bridgette' when he was trying to keep her awake.

Bridgette had been elated about being called by her first name, it seemed like a big deal back then, and now Félix just casually had a nickname for Marinette.

Maybe he didn't mean to call Marinette that, maybe he was reading something about a Princess on his phone and he mixed up his words.

Sounded plausible; that's probably what had happened.

Bridgette didn't actually believe it. She felt like crying, but this was her birthday party and she would keep a strong face at least until the party was over.

She returned to the party, but she didn't feel like dancing with Felix anymore. She avoided him for the rest of the night.

* * *

Marinette returned to her home in a dream-like state. She was on autopilot during the whole conversation on the car with her father, 'yes, I had fun', 'Bridgette said hi", and 'no, she hasn't opened my gift yet.'

She reached her bedroom and lay on her bed with her mind blank. She didn't want to think, because if she did she would start connecting dots, dots that shouldn't be connected, and she'd end up reaching a conclusion she really didn't want to reach.

With an eight letter word, Félix had destroyed the foundations of her world, and right now her world was crumbling to pieces.

"Are you okay Marinette?" asked Tikki, concerned by Marinette's pale face.

"Félix is Chat Noir," said Marinette weakly.

"Sorry?"

"Félix is Chat Noir," repeated Marinette, louder this time.

"What are you talking about?" Tikki looked so utterly confused. Marinette was aware Tikki knew Chat Noir's identity, so she did not understand why she looked so shocked by this information. Maybe she was surprised that Marinette had figure it out already.

"I don't know why I never suspected him. Both of them are blond."

"Marinette, you can't accuse every blond boy of…"

"They are around the same height."

"That doesn't mean th…"

"I always suspected Chat was around my age, Félix is only a few months older than me."

"Paris is a huge city; he can't be the only teenage boy that fits that description…"

"I've always thought Félix voice's sounds a lot like Chat's."

"Félix's voice also sounds a lot like Adrien's; does that make them the same person?"

"And he called me 'Princess' today."

"He did what?"

"Félix called me princess today," reiterated Marinette. "Only Chat Noir calls me princess."

Marinette didn't understand why Tikki was being so difficult. She understood the importance of secret identities, but there was no point on playing dumb now since she had figured out Chat's. The silly cat was dumb enough to call her princess sans mask.

"Don't you think Félix is way too grumpy to be Chat?" insisted Tikki.

Now, Tikki had a point. Marinette was indeed having troubles reconciling her pun-loving partner with Adrien's grumpy cousin. The idea of Félix and Chat Noir being the same person was giving Marinette an unpleasant feeling in her stomach. She used to think she knew everything there was to know about Chat (except his identity of course), but if Félix was indeed Chat Noir, then it meant Marinette didn't knew her partner as well as she thought she did.

"Well, Chat did mention he acted different as a civilian." Marinette remembered Chat mentioning how there were many expectations on his civilian identity, how he had to keep a certain image, therefore he acted much calmer.

Tikki still looked utterly unconvinced.

"The fact that Félix called you 'princess' is not foolproof evidence that he is Chat Noir," she said carefully, after a second of silence. "So please don't get ahead of yourself and do anything rash or irresponsible that might…"

"You are right Tikki!"

"I'm glad you think so."

"I need to find more evidence that Félix is Chat!"

"I never said that."

"Operation: Prove that Félix is Chat Noir, is a go."

Tikki sighed, defeated.

"If you are going to be so stubborn about this, you should at least pick a less generic name for your operation."

* * *

Marinette was not sure what the steps of ' _Prove that Félix is Chat Noir'_ actually were. She was awake the whole night, thinking. Her first idea was to follow Chat post an akuma battle and catch him dropping his transformation, but she quickly dropped the idea. For some reason that felt wrong, like if she was betraying Chat's trust. Plus, she would feel incredibly hypocritical since she would have been furious if Chat ever followed with the intention of watching her dropping her transformation.

Her second idea was that the next time she saw Félix, she was going to observe him carefully and see if she could actually _spot_ – pun not intended - something of Chat in him; in his speech pattern, in his mannerisms, something. The idea was not half-bad, she was definitely going to do it. Problem was that she didn't see Félix very often; she had no idea when she was going to see him next, and it could be in a few hours or a few months. And she was going to go insane if she didn't find proof soon.

Of course, the opportunity presented itself that night during patrol. The night was very quiet, and they finished their patrol early. On nights like that, they liked to meet in the Eiffel tower, to just talk, see how the other was doing.

That night Chat was talking lively about something, but Ladybug was not paying attention. She had spent all the night observing her partner, trying to find any proof that he was indeed Félix Agreste. She could definitely see the physical resemblance, but it was proving to be difficult to see grumpy, cold, distant Félix in her silly, happy, overly friendly Chat.

"…and then I decided to run away from home to fulfill my dream of becoming the world's most renowned professional yodeler."

"Sorry?"

"I knew you weren't paying attention," said Chat casually. "What's up Buginette, were you too focused on admiring how clawsome and sexy I look tonight?"

"You wish, Kitty."

Chat winked and it was so un-Felix like. Marinette remembered last Valentine's, Bridgette made a card for Félix and when she delivered it, he looked like his head was going to explode from blushing so much. It was hard to imagine Félix winking and flirting like Chat did.

Chat was talking again, what was he saying?

"Earth to Ladybug." Chat looked mildly concerned now. "So, penny for your thoughts?"

Suddenly she had an idea. All she had to do is mentioning Félix and observe Chat's reactions.

"You have to promise you won't laugh at me if I tell you."

"I would never dare to laugh at you, My Lady." Chat put his hand on his chest, mockingly offended.

"So, I was thinking about a boy," Marinette despised lies, but this was not a lie, was it? She was indeed thinking about a boy, just not in the way it was implied by her tone. This was not lying; this was saying a truth without context. Not the same thing.

Chat looked utterly taken aback with that response.

"A boy?" He asked slowly, as if those two words were very hard to pronounce.

"A boy."

"And, may I ask My Lady, what boy is worthy enough to have all of your attention even if he is not present?" Chat voice sounded weird.

"I'll let you know: it's Félix Agreste."

Chat went completely pale. Ladybug took note of that.

"Fé-felix Agreste?" Ladybug didn't think she'd ever heard Chat stuttering before.

His reaction was really interesting. She decided to play it dumb.

"Félix Agreste. Ever heard of him? Tall guy, blond hair, green eyes, I think he is around our age. He has been in the public eye for quite a while, since both of his parents are politicians."

"I know who he is," replied Chat quietly. Chat was never quiet. Definitely, Ladybug was onto something here. "Do you know him or something?"

Of course, Chat would like to know if they knew each other outside the mask.

"We have met," she said, mysteriously, hoping to pique Chat's curiosity. She was waiting for Chat to ask where or when she had meet Félix, but the question never came.

Chat just stare into the distance in silence. She decided to push a little further. If there was something Chat couldn't resist was praises.

"I really admire him you know? He is a genius, best student on his class." Finally, the hours of listening to Bridgette gushing about Félix were paying off. Marinette could almost imitate her perfectly. "And he is really generous; he does a lot of charity work. And oh so humble! He never brags about anything."

Chat still didn't reply and for some reason he looked like he was going to be sick. He probably didn't know how to react to Ladybug's praises without giving his identity away. So she decided to push a little bit further.

"And it doesn't hurt that he is really attractive. One of the hottest guys I've ever met." This wasn't a lie either. Félix indeed was one of the hottest guys she ever met. Just because she wasn't interested in him romantically, didn't mean she couldn't make an objective observation. It was just a fact. The sky was blue, the sun rises in the east, and Félix Agreste was hot. That being said, in her humble opinion Adrien was a thousand times hotter. "What do you think of him?"

"He is a really good person, one of the greatest guys I've ever met," Chat answered carefully "He is smart and loyal and he is really funny to be around – even if he looks grumpy at first sight - and he is a really lucky guy, if you are that interested in him."

He was not looking at Ladybug while saying all that, and his voice sounded sad and defeated for some reason. Suddenly he was on his feet and saying.

"I…I just remembered I left the stove on?"

It came off more like a question than a statement.

"You left the stove on?" repeated Ladybug, trying to make sense of Chat's words.

"Yes, I left the stove on. Gotta Dash! Goodbye Ladybug!"

Chat left without giving Ladybug time to reply. If she suspected Félix before, after seeing Chat's panicky reaction she was one hundred percent convinced: Félix Agreste was Chat Noir.

For some reason, she didn't feel joy for being able to prove her theory, instead she felt an unpleasant weight on her chest. Maybe it was because apparently she didn't know her partner as much as she thought she did, if she was unable to recognize him as a civilian, but most likely it was related to the fact that if Chat was Félix, then Chat was in love with Bridgette.

Marinette have always loved the idea of Félix and Bridgette together, she had shipped them with the passion of a fangirl. This shouldn't change now that she knew he was Chat Noir because she only liked Chat as a friend and there should be nothing wrong with him liking her cousin. Except there was something terribly wrong with him liking Bridgette. The idea of Chat liking anybody - especially her cousin - was a really unpleasant one.

She knew she shouldn't care if Chat liked Bridgette since she was head over heels in love with Adrien. But she did care. For the second night in a row, she didn't sleep at all.

* * *

Adrien already knew Ladybug didn't reciprocate his feelings. He already knew she was in love with someone else. It still hurt when she mentioned being thinking about a boy, but he thought he could take it. He thought he could put a strong face while Ladybug gushed about the man of her dreams, not letting her know she might as well be kicking him on the stomach several times on a row.

He could take Ladybug gushing about a nameless, faceless, man. He could endure the conversation picturing the guy to be an ugly disagreeable jerk and totally not worthy of Ladybug. But then Ladybug had to go and put a face and a name to the man of her dreams, and Adrien's heart dropped from his chest, fell from the top of the building they were standing on, and crashed on the ground, breaking into a million pieces.

The nameless, faceless, ugly jerk, undeserving of Ladybug's affection that Adrien hated so much, turned out to be a handsome gentleman, almost worthy of Ladybug's affection, that Adrien not only knew quite well, but also loved very much.

There were twelve million people in Paris, and Ladybug had to go and fall in love with his cousin. He really needed to have a word or two with whomever or whatever superior power was in charge of the universe. They clearly hated Adrien.

Monday came, and Adrien arrived to the school feeling worse than ever. He had spent the whole Sunday just lying on his bed drowning on self-pity and pain. After Saturday patrol he had been unable to sleep, luckily he didn't have a photoshoot schedule until Tuesday. If he didn't get a full night of sleep tonight, the makeup crew were going to have heart attacks when he showed up to the photoshoot looking like he was going to make a cameo on The Walking Dead as a zombie.

When Nino asked, Adrien gave him a weak excuse about some made up late night photoshoot. Nino didn't look like he believed him and Adrien spend the whole day ignoring the concerned glances his friend was throwing at him.

Adrien didn't pay attention in class; he couldn't concentrate on what Madame Bustier was saying. This was unusual since he usually did great in school. Of course his grades were not as perfect as Félix's; therefore Ladybug didn't love him like she loved Félix, so there was no point in paying attention in class anymore.

Adrien knew he was making zero sense, but the love of his life told him that she was in love with his cousin; do excuse him if he is being a little absurd. He was so lost in his thoughts he almost missed the lunch bell, and he hardly remembered when he ended up at sharing a schoolyard table with Nino, Alya, and Marinette.

"So, why does Adrien look like he died twelve years ago today?" asked Alya at some point.

"His dad made him do a late night photoshoot last night."

Nino was the real MVP, he didn't believe Adrien's excuse yet he repeated as if it was an indisputable truth.

"Yeah, it ended around one in the morning and I have to wake up at five am for school. I'm surprised I haven't collapsed yet," added Adrien.

"That sucks; your dad is seriously exploiting you. Someone needs to have a word with him about how many hours of sleep a growing boy needs."

Adrien was surprised Alya bought the lie, while Nino didn't. She was an excellent reporter; she should've been able to see through his BS. Maybe it was because Nino knew him way better than Alya did.

Suddenly Marinette, who has not spoked until then, got up and announced:

"I'll be back."

"Where are you going, girl?" Alya looked confused by her friend's sudden action.

"I need to grab something from my house. I'll be quick."

Marinette left without giving Alya time to reply and returned when the bell was about to ring. She was out of breath. She probably went running to her house. She was carrying a small box and a thermos.

She nervously approached Adrien, and he wondered why she always looked so terrified around him. He really hoped he knew so he could work on a way to make her feel more comfortable with him.

"I…I….coffee… you said… didn't sleep so I thought…what I mean…I..." She took a deep breath as if trying to calm herself, and said, "you said you didn't sleep last night so I brought you coffee, to keep you awake." She said the whole sentence without stuttering and looked rather proud of it, she gave him the thermos and then added, "I also brought you macaroons, for an extra boost of energy."

He accepted the thermos, ignoring Nino and Alya's protests that were accusing Marinette of favoritism. He didn't deserve Marinette. She was too good; she was nice and generous and everything good in the world.

"Thank you," he said, smiling for the first time in the past two days.

"You're welcome." She smiled back. She looked super cute when she smiled, especially because her smile reached her eyes, her cute bluebell eyes, so similar to Ladybug's…

See, this is why Adrien never allowed himself to explore his feelings for Marinette. She always ended up reminding him of his Lady, and that was not fair. As he had stated previously, Marinette deserved better than a jerk who was constantly thinking about another girl.

Even if said girl was in love with aforementioned jerk's cousin. His life was a mess.

As predicted, on Tuesday the makeup crew almost had a heart attack when they saw him.

 **TBC**

This will be a three-chapters story. Chapter two and three will be published within the next week.

I came up with this plot bunny a while ago, but I didn't dare to write it before because I'm not a native English speaker and the fandom is not that big in my native language.

I want to thank Rasiaa once again. She helped me a lot.

Love

Tete

PS: Before I closed my Tumblr account, I made a post about this plot bunny, in case you have seen it before.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Two weeks had passed since Marinette discovered Chat's identity, and ever since he had been acting weird. For starters, he had stopped flirting with her. He stopped calling her names like 'My Lady' or 'Buginette' and now he only called her 'Ladybug.' It was not that Marinette liked those ridiculous names, but it was weird to be referred only as Ladybug by him.

Who was she kidding? She missed those ridiculous nicknames. But she shouldn't since she loved Adrien, and Chat was actually Félix a.k.a. Bridgette's future husband, and the father of Marinette's future nephews and nieces.

Chat felt distant somehow. She didn't know how to explain it. He was there with her, fighting akumas with her, patrolling Paris with her, he talked to her, he trusted her with his life, but he didn't flirt with her and he was putting some distance between them. Marinette hadn't notice how close she was with Chat, until he was actively trying to be less close.

At first, she thought he had figured out that she knew his secret identity, and was trying to put some professional distance between them. Or maybe he thought that now that she knew he was Félix, he should try to act more Félix-like as Chat. She quickly dismissed those ideas. He had not shown any indication of being aware she knew his secret, and he hadn't brought up the topic with her at all.

Upon further observation she realized he looked really down lately. Maybe something was bothering him in his personal life. She tried to talk to him about it, but he kept telling her everything was fine.

Chat Noir wasn't the only one who looked down lately, Adrien also looked sad. Maybe something happened on the Agreste family. She couldn't ask Adrien, she couldn't even form a coherent sentence around him. Alya had tried interrogating Nino, but he kept repeating Adrien was fine, he was just working over-time lately. Maybe it was the true, but it kind of sounded like BS. Marinette kept bringing him homemade coffee and treats from the bakery to school just in case.

She still didn't know what to do about Chat though.

After several failed attempts of asking Chat, Marinette had decided to just ask Bridgette if she knew if something was bothering Félix. Problem was she just couldn't call her cousin and go 'Lately Félix s looking kind of depressed and he stopped flirting with me but he refused to tell me what's wrong so I wanted to know if you knew why?'

At the end she had decided not to ask Bridgette because it might sound weird and she felt kind of like if she was spying on Chat or something. She decided it was better if she asked the cat himself. Chat had refused to tell Ladybug - his trusted partner - what was bothering him, so the chances of Félix telling Marinette were slim to none, but she had to try. At the end she texted Bridgette:

 **To:** Bri

 _8:46pm_

I know this will sound weird AF, but can u give me Félix's number? Pls.

 **From:** Bri

 _8:48pm_

I don't have it :( Sorry.

 **From:** Bri

 _8:49pm_

Y do u need it anyway?

 **To:** Bri

 _8:51pm_

I just needed to ask him something.

 **To:** Bri

 _8:52pm_

Thnk u anyway Bri.

It was a pity Bridgette didn't have Félix's number. Marinette knew one person who surely did, but she didn't want to ask Adrien. If she couldn't form a coherent sentence around Adrien, asking him for Félix's phone number would be a quite difficult task.

She was going to give Chat a couple of days. If he kept acting weird, then she'd summon all her courage and she'd ask Adrien.

* * *

Bridgette replied honestly when Marinette asked for Félix's number. She didn't have it; he was one of those super private people who didn't like giving his number to anybody. That being said, the fact itself that Marinette wanted Félix's number was unsettling, more so, for Marinette's super vague explanation of why she needed it.

Bridgette didn't want to think badly of her cousin, but honestly, the whole situation was fishy. Added to the fact that Félix called Marinette 'Princess' on Bridgette's Party…well… It's not hard to add two plus two.

There was something going on between Marinette and Félix. Maybe they were secretly dating, maybe they were having a scandalous affair, and maybe they were just crushing on each other. But there was definitely something between them, Bridgette just didn't know what, and she had no desire to find out.

She ate her weight on chocolate and cried herself to sleep that night. She wanted to be furious at Félix for noticing Marinette and not her. She wanted to be furious at Marinette for betraying her like this when she had always knew Bridgette loved Félix. But she was not. Instead she was angry at herself for falling in love with Félix.

In the morning Bridgette woke up with a new resolution.

She loved her cousin, and she was in love with Félix. All she ever wanted for both of them is to be happy. If they were happy with each other, well Bridgette would not get in the middle of that.

As much as it hurts, she was going to give up on Félix Agreste.

* * *

After school, Adrien had gone to Nino's place to 'work on a school project', which was code to 'play videogames and eat junk food all afternoon'. Nino's turtle theme character had just effortless destroyed Adrien's cat themed one. Instead of celebrating his victory Nino just put his control aside, faced Adrien and said, "Ok, spill it"

"Spill what?" asked Adrien, confused.

"Why are you so blue lately?"

"I'm not," replied Adrien, putting his controller aside as well.

"Come on, you have been acting as if someone killed your puppy or something."

"I've not. I'm fine." Ladybug had been asking the same thing recently, Adrien almost felt like a broken record, repeating the same thing over and over again.

"Bro, don't lie to me. I just kicked your butt in Mecha Strike, you know how many times that had happened before?"

"Zero?"

"Exactly. So something is obviously wrong. Spill it."

Adrien thought about it for a moment. He really needed someone to talk to about this. Plagg, bless his little kwami heart, was utterly useless when it came to romance. He did try his best to comfort Adrien, which meant offering him a piece of Camembert. Plagg meant well, but smelly cheese did nothing to palliate the pain in Adrien heart.

Plus, Nino was dating Alya, so he must know something about girls.

"So, do you remember the girl I told you about?"

"The model?"

Adrien nodded. For the record, he never told Nino Ladybug was a model. He told him it was _a 'girl he worked with'_ , and wasn't that the true? He worked with Ladybug, he just omitted the part where their job was to fight akumas and keep Paris safe. Nino was the one that assumed Ladybug was a model, and Adrien never corrected him because it saved him from giving awkward explanations. Besides, Ladybug was stunning enough to be a model anyway.

"She is in love with Félix." Adrien said it as fast as he could, as if that somehow was going to make it less painful.

Adrien didn't know what exactly he expected from Nino, maybe some words of comfort, at least a 'That's sucks, sorry bro' or an advice. What he didn't expected was for Nino to look shocked and scream:

"YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH MARINETTE'S COUSIN?"

"Don't scream! And I'm not, why would you think that?"

Adrien was genuinely confused.

"Well, she is in love with Félix."

"She is not the only one you know." Adrien felt slightly offended in behalf of his cousin; the guy did have a respectable number of girls interested in him. Adrien just wished his Lady wasn't one of them, but life sucked like that.

"I mean, you're not wrong, but she also fits the description of the chick you keep swooning over." That actually got Adrien's attention.

"Explain."

"You keep gushing about her blue eyes, and dark blueish hair, and for the longest time I thought you were actually talking about Marinette," explained Nino, "like when you said 'asking for a friend' but that friend is actually you, you know? So I figured your 'model friend' was a code for Marinette."

"It's not…"

"I know it's not Marinette," said Nino, "later you mentioned that you were conflicted because you also liked Marinette, so I just figured model chick was real and you have a type." Nino took a huge bite of his pizza before continuing, "But then you said that your mystery girl has the hots for your cousin and well, Bridgette fits the description too, and everybody know she is crazy over Félix so I thought…"

Adrien missed the rest of the explanation, he was having a crisis.

Nino was right. Bridgette looked a lot like Ladybug. They have the same eye color and hair color. Bridgette's hair was longer, but his own hair changed when he transformed so maybe that was the case of his Lady as well. They were around the same age, and they both were in love with Félix.

Could it be that Bridgette was Ladybug?

Maybe.

Did he want her to be Ladybug?

That was an easy question. No, he didn't.

To be honest he was disappointed. It's not that there was something wrong with Bridgette; she was a perfectly nice girl. But if he could pick who he wanted Ladybug to be, he would not had picked her. If he could pick who he wanted Ladybug to be, he would have picked Marinette.

He always said that no matter what, he loved the girl behind the mask. But as soon as the girl behind the mask turned out to not be the cute her from his school, he was disappointed. He wanted Ladybug to be Marinette, and when he was with Marinette he compared her to Ladybug.

Maybe that was why the universe hated him: because he was a jerk.

* * *

Eavesdropping was a ghastly habit that Félix didn't partake in. Therefore, he was not eavesdropping on Bridgette and her friend. He was just walking on the school hall, when he accidentally heard Bridgette talking with Clémence Fontaine in an empty classroom. If he did not made his presence known to the girls and tried to hear the conversation, well that was neither here nor there.

Usually, he didn't find other people's conversations to be of any interest to him. This was just a notable exception. For the past couple of weeks, Bridgette had been acting different. She had stopped seeking him out, all of sudden, without any explanation.

He could pinpoint exactly the moment it all started; it was on her birthday party. They were dancing together, and suddenly Dupain-Cheng came to say goodbye. He recalled he seized that moment to replied to a text from Adrien. Félix was teasing his cousin about how he got to be at a party with 'The Princess' while Adrien was stuck with his dad at a boring event.

Suddenly Bridgette excused herself and she avoided him for the rest of the party.

But just because he knew the 'when' and the 'where' it all went wrong, didn't mean he understood the 'why'. Had he said something wrong? Had he make her uncomfortable somehow? She seemed comfortable dancing with him. Actually, she had not started acting weird until Dupain-Cheng came to talk to her.

He hadn't ignored Dupain-Cheng…had he? He didn't even remember if he replied when she said goodbye. Even if he didn't reply, ignoring Bridgette's cousin was not enough reason for her to avoid him, so that was probably not the reason.

Félix had spent a good part of the past two weeks wondering what was wrong with Bridgette and if he was to blame. It was not that Félix missed having her attention; he just thought her behavior was unusual and he was a very curious person. Or so he kept repeating to himself.

On this particular day, she had come to the school looking rather sad and defeated. He was self-aware enough to admit he was worried. So of course, when the opportunity of 'accidentally overhearing' a conversation between Bridgette and her best friend presented itself, well, Félix knew how to seize opportunities.

"I don't know Bri," Fountaine was saying when he started hearing the conversation, "I mean, you are right, the texts were kind of suspicious, but…"

"But?"

"I mean, there is nothing incriminating on those texts."

"It is not only the texts, Clé. He also calls her princess."

"I really can't picture Agreste calling anyone princess."

"Neither could I, but I hear him with my own two ears."

Oh, apparently they were not talking about why Bridgette was acting weird. Apparently they were just gossiping about Adrien and Dupain-Cheng. That was of very little interest of him. He was about to go back to his own business when something caught his attention.

"It's just...well I don't really know your cousin, but for what you have told me, she sounds like she is very nice. I don't think she would hurt you like this."

Dupain-Cheng was hurting Bridgette? That didn't sound right. He really didn't know her that well but he knew she would never hurt anybody, Mayor Bourgeois' daughter being the probable exception.

"It's not like she is doing this on purpose," replied Bridgette. "You cannot help who you fall in love with, it's not her fault that we fell in love with the same boy, and she is not to blame if he reciprocates her feelings."

That was the moment the bell rang and Félix couldn't keep listening to the girls' conversation.

Félix was a very intelligent young man. In school he usually understood teacher's explanation three times as fast as his classmates. Yet, it took him all day to make sense to Bridgette's words. And for the first time in a long time he had to write down what he knew just to make sure he was not reaching the wrong conclusion.

 _ **Fact 1:**_ _Bridgette and Dupain-Cheng were in love with the same person._ _That itself made no sense, since Dupain-Cheng was hardly discreet with her crush on Adrien. And with all the attention Bridgette showered Félix with, one would assume she had a crush on him._

 _ **Fact 2:**_ _Aforementioned person's a male and his surname is Agreste._ _Not counting his dad and his uncle, there were only two males with the last name Agreste. Adrien and himself._

 _ **Fact 3:**_ _Aforementioned person reciprocates Dupain-Cheng's feelings and calls her 'princess'._ _Félix was not in love with Dupain-Cheng, and he doesn't calls her princess. Well, he does, but only to tease Adrien, and he do not think he had ever done it in front of Bridgette or Dupain-Cheng. Adrien is in love with Marinette and calls her princess._

 _ **Logical Conclusion:**_ _Bridgette was in love with Adr…_

Félix didn't finished writing the conclusion, just the thought of putting that in writing was painful. Who was he kidding anyway; he had understood Bridgette's words since he heard her pronounce them. He just didn't want to accept them. Because Bridgette couldn't be in love with Adrien, she just couldn't.

* * *

Turned out, Marinette didn't need to ask Adrien for Félix's phone number. The opportunity to find out what was wrong with Chat presented itself the very next day after she texted Bridgette.

She was walking home from Alya's place when suddenly Chat dropped from ceiling in front of her.

"Good afternoon, Princess." He kissed her hand.

"Good afternoon to you too kitty, what are you doing here?" She had no idea why he was transformed. She was pretty sure it was not his night for solo patrol and it was not that late anyway, it was not even dinner time yet. "Is there an akuma?"

"No, there is no akuma. I just saw a princess walking by herself and thought a knight's duty was to walk her to her house."

"What, you think I can't take care of myself?" she asked teasingly.

"I know you can, I just wanted the pleasure of your compurrny."

"A purr pun, really? That was not only terrible, but also overused."

"Why would you hurt meow like this?"

They started walking to Marinette's house, talking and teasing each other. Her banter with Chat Noir was so easy that she was having a hard time reminding he was Félix under the mask. In her mind, it was as if they were two different people. She didn't remember if she had ever had a conversation of more than three lines with Félix.

Suddenly she felt really stupid for not realizing something sooner. Chat Noir won't tell Ladybug why he is so sad lately. Chat Noir and Ladybug were close friends, but in order to keep their identities a secret they rarely ever talked about personal stuff. Félix won't tell Marinette either, because sans masks Félix and Marinette were just acquaintances and they only talked about the weather.

But there was a third scenario she hadn't considered before. Would Chat Noir tell Marinette what was bothering him? They were on the 'talk about how to deal with existential crisis on your balcony at three am in the morning' level of friendship and sometimes he told her stuff he wouldn't tell her when she was wearing the mask. It was worth the shot.

They reached her house way too soon; she did not live far away from Alya's place. Since Chat was always so extra he took her on his arms and carried her to her balcony.

"You have reached your destination safely. Thank you for traveling with ChatAirlines."

"Thank you for bringing me home, oh my knight in shiny spandex." She mockingly pretended to faint.

"You are welcome princess!"

Well, this was as a good occasion as any other, she may as well ask now.

"Hey Chat, can I ask you something?"

"Whatever you want," he said, flirty.

"Well, is just that I noticed you seem kind of down lately, is something bothering you?"

"I knew you payed attention to me, you do care!" He said smugly, she glared at him and he added in a monotone voice, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

She had started to hate hearing him say 'I'm fine.' He repeated it robotically, as if it were a script.

"You are not fine. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but you know you can trust me, right?" She actually really wanted him to tell her, but she didn't want to pressure him. His comfort was more important than her curiosity and desired to help.

"I know Marinette, thank you."

He seemed so sad and sincere saying that, Marinette feel the urge to hug him and not let him go until he was back at being his usual cheery self. She didn't restrain herself. She launched herself and hugged Chat. He melted into the hug and seemed completely comfortable resting his head in Marinette's shoulders despite the fact that he was way taller than her and had to bend his back to be able to be in that position.

They stayed like that for who knows how long. Something told Marinette that Chat really needed that hug, so she didn't want to let go first. After a few more minutes he started to let go, but he didn't completely untangle himself from Marinette's arms. They were still kind of hugging but his head was no longer in her shoulders, instead he was looking her in the eyes.

Suddenly their lips met.

In the years to come she was never able to recall who kissed who, she only remembered they were hugging and suddenly they were kissing.

She couldn't properly explain what she was feeling, her brain was having a short-circuit and her heart was beating so hard he could probably hear it. Her arms were around his neck and his hands were on her waist, they kept pulling the other closer.

This shouldn't be so easy, kissing a guy you swore you are just friend with should be awkward, but it wasn't, instead it was mind-blowing. She couldn't get enough of him, she didn't know how she lived sixteen years of not kissing him. The kiss on Valentine's Day two years ago didn't count because Chat didn't remember it and she only did it to break the spell.

He was the only guy she had ever kissed, she wondered if she was the only girl he had kissed too. She felt a pang of jealousy thinking about another girl kissing her Kitty. She wouldn't know anyway, it's not like she knew anything from his personal life.

Except she did. She just remembered that this wasn't only Chat Noir, this was Félix Agreste. The cousin of her future husband. And the future husband of her cousin. Kissing him was very high on the list of things Marinette definitely shouldn't do.

"Chat…Chat we…"

She was really trying to tell him to stop. The problem was her lack of self-control didn't allow her stay away from Chat's lips long enough to say something besides his name. He took this as encouragement to kiss her more enthusiastically.

What started as an innocent kiss was on its way to become a full make out session. Why was she wanted to stop anyway?

Oh, right! They needed to stop because Chat was Félix, and kissing Félix was a big no-no. She really needed put together all her self-control and tell him to stop.

"Felix…"

Suddenly he stopped kissing her and let her go as if he had gotten electrocuted. He looked horrified about something. Before she had time to say anything, he jumped to the nearest roof without saying goodbye.

Marinette wondered for a second what had triggered that reaction and then it dawned on her. She had called him "Félix." She had let him know she knew his secret identity. How could she have been so careless?

Chat reaction was perhaps a little exaggerated; the logical thing to do in that situation was confront her about how she knew. But it was easy to say that from her point of view. She didn't knew how she would react if she was in Chat's shoes and someone called 'Marinette' while wearing the mask.

She figured that Chat would come back later after he had gotten over the shock of finding out she knew his identity.

Marinette was going to use the meantime to drown in regret and self-hate. How could she have kiss Félix? She wondered what Bridgette would say if she found out. Marinette was officially the worst cousin in the history of ever.

Chat didn't come back that night.

* * *

Maybe Plagg's theory that cheese was better than girls had some merit.

Seriously, how much can Adrien's life suck?

He was in love with two girls, that itself was a problem. Then one of them told him she was in love with Félix, and the other called him by his cousin's name while making out. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that Ladybug might or might not be Bridgette, who Adrien didn't have feelings for, but he still loved his Lady.

It was a miracle Adrien had not had a nervous breakdown yet.

Adrien had been trying (not succeeding, trying) to get over Ladybug ever since she told him she was in love with Félix. It hurt seeing his Lady, and knowing she loved his cousin. But he tried his best. He stopped flirting with her, he still tried to be her friend, he just stopped the nicknames and pick up lines. He changed his desktop and phone wallpaper to a poster of his favorite anime. He stopped stalking the Ladyblog. And it didn't hurt that Marinette was always there for him.

He still tried not to flirt with Marinette, at least until he was completely over Ladybug. Marinette didn't deserve to be somebody's rebound. But then last night happened.

Offering to accompany her home was a spur of the moment thing. He was running around as Chat Noir (he was not on patrol, but sometimes he liked to transform and run around, he found it relaxing) when he saw her walking home. Somehow, they ended up hugging, and when his lips were so close to hers he couldn't resist her and he ended up kissing her.

For a moment, a delightful moment, he thought she reciprocated his feelings, as she was kissing him back so vehemently. But then she had uttered his cousin's name.

He didn't understand why she did that. Was she thinking about Félix? Did she wish she was kissing Félix instead of him? He had no idea what Marinette felt for his cousin.

If Ladybug being in love with Félix had broke his heart, Marinette calling him by his name had taken the piece of his already broken heart and completely and utterly destroyed it.

Maybe this was his punishment for loving both Marinette and Ladybug at the same time. He fell in love with two girls, and as a punishment, both of them fell for his cousin.

The very next morning he showed up to school feeling like he was about to break down at any moment. He didn't feel ready to face Marinette yet. He didn't know how he was going to react when he saw her. He would probably start crying and ended up embarrassing himself in front of everybody.

Worst part was Marinette wouldn't even know why he was crying since she was unaware that he had feelings for her or that he was Chat Noir. She would probably think he was mental.

She was not there yet when he arrived to school, and Adrien took his usual sit beside Nino. He didn't have the energy to even bother improvising a half-decent excuse to his friend about why he looked worse than ever.

Turned out, he didn't need to, because before he could even say 'Good morning' to Nino, suddenly everybody was screaming and running in different directions.

Apparently, the school's janitor was pushed a little bit too far by inconsiderate students, and Hawk Moth, the asshole, decided that it was a good idea to akumatize somebody before eight thirty in the morning.

Currently the janitor was trying enslave everybody and forcing them to clean non-stop, and his Lady was just arriving to the scene. It was not the time for Adrien to keep dwelling in how pathetic his love life was. He'd have time to deal with that later. He hid in the nearest closet to transform.

A 'Bye bye little butterfly' and a fist bump with Ladybug later, Adrien accidentally ran in the same direction than Ladybug and saw her get into the closet he had used previously. He knew he should look away and walk in the opposite direction in order to not see the girl who would get out of the closet. It was the correct thing to do, Ladybug trusted him that he was not going to try to find out her secret identity.

However, he didn't move. He couldn't. He needed to know if Bridgette Cheng was under that mask. He really hoped she wasn't, and that made him felt even worse because she might be.

The door opened.

Adrien's world stopped when Marinette stepped out of that closet.

 **TBC**

The third and final chapter of this fic is still in progress and I hope to publish it before next Sunday.

I want to thank my beta, the amazing Rasiaa, I don't know what I would do without her. Honestly.

Tomorrow (May 20th) is my dogs first birthday. His name is Sirius and he is a Rottie. I just thought I'll let you know in case you wanted to say "congratulations!"

Love

Tete


	3. Chapter 3

I apologize for the delay guys; some stuff came up. Here is the final part.

 **Chapter 3**

Adrien didn't remember the rest of the school day. He couldn't think of anything else besides the fact that Ladybug was sitting behind him. He couldn't believe it. He had spent two years longing to know Ladybug's identity and she had been there the whole time. What were the odds of Ladybug and Chat Noir being classmates? It was an almost impossible coincidence.

He had spent the whole school day avoiding Marinette. He didn't even know what he was feeling; he couldn't face her just now. His mind was in chaos; he needed at least to organize his thoughts before he was ready to face her. He also spent the rest of the day avoiding Nino, who was worried about his odd behavior, and Alya who wanted to know what wrong with him.

He never thought he would say this, but he was glad when the school bell rang and he could go home to lock himself in his room.

"Marinette is Ladybug. Ladybug is Marinette," was the first thing that came out of his mouth when he was finally alone with Plagg.

"I'm glad you finally know. It was annoying to hear you whining about how you love two girls, knowing they are the same."

The two girls Adrien loved turned out to be one amazing girl. If Ladybug was out of his league, and Marinette was out of his league, they being the same was like impossibly unreachable for Adrien.

"Why do you look so sad? They are the same girl!" said Plagg, confused, while he served himself a piece of camembert, "I thought you'd be elated to know you don't have to choose."

Plagg was right. He had always secretly hoped Marinette turned out to be Ladybug. Problem was, now he knew she was in love with someone else. She had gushed about Félix to him and then called him by his name when he kissed her.

"She doesn't love me, Plagg."

"Look, I usually don't like to get involved in the whole love stuff, but this is getting ridiculous." Plagg looked at Adrien with a serious face, "there is no someone else. Tikki's chosen is in love with you. She is in love with you as Adrien, that's why she rejects you as Chat Noir. Now stop whining."

Adrien looked at Plagg for a couple of seconds, processing this information and then said, "I know you are trying to comfort me, but that's not actually helping you know."

"I'm serious."

"She is in love with Félix."

"She is not. We talked about this before; I already told you she is not in love with him."

"You actually didn't. You only told me I was being absurd and offered me a piece of camembert. When I insisted on talking about it you claimed cheese was better than girls anyway."

"Kid, camembert is better than girls, that's not up for discussion."

"Camembert doesn't fall for my cousin so I guess you are right."

"You have no idea how close I am to gagging you with a dirty sock." Plagg looked positively exasperated at this point. "She is in love with you. It's quite obvious. You are just an oblivious idiot."

Adrien didn't reply to Plagg's statement. Plagg looked so convinced of what he was saying that Adrien almost believed him. He wanted to believe him. But he couldn't. He had enough evidences that Marinette was in love with Félix.

"Should I tell her I know her identity?"

"That's up to you. Do you want to?"

Adrien only thought about it for a moment.

"She deserves to know. I'm definitely going to tell her, I just don't know when."

She was going to be really pissed about him for finding out her identity. But he had to do it, he couldn't live wondering whether Ladybug was Bridgette or not.

Suddenly, realization dawned on him.

Marinette was in love with Félix. He was too busy suffering over that, that only now he remember a little, tiny detail.

"Félix is in love with Bridgette."

"What? I mean, yes he is but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Marinette is in love with Félix, but he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. He is in love with Bridgette," Adrien explained. His heart ached at the thought of Marinette loving Félix while he loved Bridgette.

Did Adrien love her that much that it pained him to know that her love for another man was unrequired? Apparently yes.

He was screwed.

"Oh, for the love of cheese! I've told you one million, three thousand, one hundred and six times, Tikki's girl is not in love with Félix."

"She is, and he doesn't love her back," stated Adrien. "He's my cousin and I love him and everything, but what an idiot he is!" Adrien was laying on his bed now. "He is loved by the most amazing girl in the universe and he is not even interested. Idiot!"

Plagg didn't reply he just stared at Adrien as if he was the idiot.

"I know why she loves him. She told me. He is smart and generous. I guess any girl would fall for that. But I can't understand how he can't see her? Is he blind?"

Plagg lack of reply didn't discourage Adrien from talking.

"I don't want her to suffer. But I know there is no hope, Félix doesn't even bother paying attention to any other girl besides Bridgette."

He was not sure if Plagg was still listening to him, but he didn't care; he needed to get all of this off his chest.

"Maybe one day she'll notice me. I know I'm not Félix, but I'm fine being her second choice."

Plagg's vow of silence ended there.

"Do you even hear yourself? Like, when you are talking? Have some self-respect kid."

"I have self-respect," claimed Adrien. Plagg made a face, making it obvious he didn't believe him. "I do. It is just that, well, with a girl like Maribug, being a consolation prize is an honor."

"Maribug?"

"Well, I don't know what to call her. I've been seen her as two different people for so long I'm having issues seeing her as only one person now."

He stared at the ceiling for a second, lost in thought. Suddenly he bolted out of the bed and exclaimed: "Buginette! She is Marinette and she is Ladybug! I've been calling her Buginette this whole time. I came up with the perfect nickname without even…" he couldn't finish the sentence because Plagg, the jerk, tried to put a smelly sock around Adrien's mouth.

* * *

After they kissed and she called him by his real name, Marinette expected Chat to show up sooner or later on her balcony to talk about it. He never did. In fact, Marinette, without her mask, had not seen Chat Noir ever since the kiss. As Ladybug, she had seen him a total of five times in the week after the kiss, three on patrol and two because there was an akuma on the loose. And he was acting weirder than ever. He was acting all jumpy and panicky and started stuttering around her. In a manner that was very un-Chat like. It kind of reminded her on how she usually acted around Adrien.

And speaking of Adrien, he was acting weird too. For some reason, out of nowhere he started stuttering around Marinette as well. Since when he was the one who stuttered around her? Alya keep giving them knowing looks,l claiming that Adrien had finally noticed Marinette, but Marinette was not convinced. Something weird was going on, and she really needed to find out what.

The situation with Adrien was hopeless; she couldn't even ask him anything without both of them becoming a stuttering mess, let alone have a heart to heart. Alya and Nino were not helping. Alya was one hundred percent convinced the reason for Adrien's odd behavior was because he had suddenly fallen for Marinette. Nino was loyal to Adrien and he kept repeating Adrien's half-assed excuses that none of them actually believed anymore.

The situation with Chat Noir wasn't much better. He stopped visiting Marinette on her balcony, and he was acting as if he was scared of Ladybug or something, so there was no way she could ask him. She was so close to just kidnapping (catnapping? Ha!) Chat and threating to not let him go until he told her what was wrong with him lately.

At least Marinette hadn't had much time to dwell on desperation over not knowing the reason for Adrien and Chat's unusual behavior. This had been one of the busiest weeks of her life. There were two akuma attacks. The bakery had received a big order and she had to help her parents. She also had her duties as class president. There was a big inter-schools sport event and she had to help in the organization.

If all of that wasn't enough she had also decided to make a banner for every one of her classmates that were participating in any of the competitions:

Kim, Swimming.

Alix, Skating.

Max, Chess.

Adrien, Fencing.

She put her heart on all the banners. But she'd be lying if she said she didn't put a lot of extra effort in Adrien's.

The day of the event, Marinette was having troubles walking around the school with four gigantic banners. Where was Alya or any other of her friends when she needed them? She couldn't see where she was going and she ended up running into someone.

Suddenly two people were helping her picking up the banners.

"I'm sorry! I'm such a klutz! I have to carry all of these and…" She was apologizing when she noticed who she was talking to.

After a week of avoiding her as Marinette, and running away from her as Ladybug, suddenly she was face to face with Félix. He was wearing what looked like a tennis garment, and was holding a racket. The other person who was helping her was someone wearing a fencing suit, mask and everything.

"Good Morning, Dupain-Cheng," he said casually. Suddenly Marinette felt anger boiling inside of her. He kissed her; he avoided her for a week, and now he dare to just say good morning to her, just like that. She was going to skin him.

"Oh, now it is Dupain-Cheng?"

Oh, she was 'Dupain-Cheng' now, not 'Princess', 'Little Lady' or any other of his ridiculous nicknames for her.

"That's your last name, isn't it?" He dared to look confused.

"You-are-un-be-lie-va-ble" She emphasized every syllable, poking him on the chest with her index finger. "You kiss me, then you avoid me, then you play dumb. Even though you know I know it's you!"

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you are talking about." How could he sound so cold, distant? So very un-like the Chat she knew and loved.

There, she admitted it. After the past three weeks she had to admit it to herself. She loved Chat. She didn't love Félix. Problem was, they were the same person. But she loved her silly, flirty, pun-loving cat and she didn't love Adrien's stoic cousin. Could she love one part of him without loving the other? She loved Chat but she didn't love the boy behind the mask. And she never stopped loving Adrien. Was that real love at all?

Worst part was how he seemed to reciprocate her feelings as Chat yet he acted as if he was in love with Bridgette as Félix. Now that she thought about it, he didn't know she was Ladybug, yet he flirted with her as Marinette and Ladybug. Was his flirting ever sincere? He probably flirted with every girl he met.

And he still had the nerve to stand in front of her, acting all confused.

Marinette was seething.

"You know what? If you are going to act like this it'll be no use talking to you." She took two banners from Félix arms, who was looking at her as if she had lost her mind, and the other two from the guy in the fencing mask who was with them. "Thank you!" she said politely to the fencer, and walked away without a second glance to Félix.

* * *

Félix was utterly confused about what had happened. He honestly didn't understand what Dupain-Cheng was talking about. Kissing? They had never kissed. He was pretty sure he'd remember if that had happened.

A little hesitation, he dared to glance at Adrien, who had just removed his fencing mask. He expected Adrien to look as confused as him. Or maybe furious, if he actually believed Félix had kissed Dupain-Cheng. What he didn't expect was the look of absolute heartbreak on Adrien's face.

Félix just wanted to drill into Adrien's head that he had never kissed Dupain-Cheng. Adrien opened his mouth to say something but Félix try to explain himself first.

"Listen, I've never…"

"I thought you loved Bridgette," said Adrien in an accusatory tone.

That was the opposite of the right thing to say.

Ever since he heard Bridgette admit she was in love with Adrien, Félix had not been sleeping properly. He had spent full nights wondering and wondering. When did Bridgette fell for Adrien? Why did she? When did she fell out of love with Félix? Was it his fault? It was probably his fault.

She had stopped seeking him out, flirting with him or giving him any kind of attention. It was not as if she was ignoring him altogether, but she was treating him the same way she treated anybody else.

For example, usually when he had a Tennis Match, she showed up dressed as a cheerleader and was no shy about showing her support screaming and cheering the loudest. He kept claiming he found it annoying, but honestly, it was somewhat nice having his own personal cheerleader. Today, she still showed up to his match, but she was not wearing her cheerleader uniform and she was not cheering louder than anybody else was.

Félix had been angry ever since discovering Bridgette loved Adrien. He was not angry at Bridgette, he could never be angry at Bridgette, no matter what. She could literally show up to his door a three in the morning and ask him to help her hide a body and he'd pretend to be annoyed but he'd be ready with a shovel in less than sixty seconds.

He was angry mostly at himself, for making Bridgette fall out of love with him.

And he was angry at Adrien for being so perfect he made Bridgette fall for him. But Félix had tried his best to not be angry at his cousin. He kept reminding himself one does not choose who you fall in love with. Adrien didn't do this on purpose and Félix had no reason to be angry at him.

He had been kind of successful in not being angry at Adrien, until his cousin accused him of loving Bridgette. How dare Adrien? He tried to remind himself Adrien didn't have an idea about Bridgette's feelings or how much Félix had been suffering. But he had lost his will to explain himself to Adrien; instead he really wanted to punch him.

He would never resort to physical violence though. That'd be beneath him. Besides, he didn't have a clue about how to throw a punch; he had never done something of the like. However, he was aware his tongue could be rather sharp if needed, and it could cause more pain than a punch ever could.

"The princess seems quite interested in me. And I'd won't deny I'm quite interested in her. I fail to see any reason why I shouldn't seize this opportunity."

He was lying through his teeth and he knew it. He didn't have any romantic interest in Dupain-Cheng and he was pretty sure Dupain-Cheng was not interested in him either. He had no idea what kiss Dupain-Cheng was talking about though. Had someone dared her to say those things? Was she trying to make Adrien jealous? Who knew? Not Félix.

The look of absolute heartbreak in his cousin's face was enough to make Félix regret his words.

Adrien didn't reply. Félix didn't have the chance to apologize and tell him it wasn't true because Monsieur D'Argencourt chose that very moment to call Adrien.

Félix felt like a jerk.

If possible, he felt even worse when Adrien gave his worst performance in a fencing match ever.

* * *

Marinette understood very little about chess. But even her, with her limited knowledge of the game, could clearly see how Max had completely destroyed his competitor in only a few minutes.

After the game ended, she and her friends were congratulating Max, when chaos broke.

Max's defeated competitor had just returned as "Chess Queen" and she was currently trying to turn everyone into pawns. Hawkmoth really needed to get a different hobby, this was getting ridiculous.

Marinette managed to hide in the bathroom to transform. When she went to face the akuma Chat was already there. She didn't know how to feel when she saw him. She was still furious with Félix about his attitude earlier, but she also still had problems seeing Félix and Chat as the same person. She wasn't sure if she was furious at Chat.

At this moment, whether she was furious at him or not was irrelevant. They had to be a team if they wanted to defeat the akuma.

It turned out to be one of the hardest battles of her life. Not because the akuma was particularly challenging. Actually it was pretty standard as far as akumas go. The problem was Chat couldn't concentrate apparently; he seemed sad and he kept missing steps.

Ladybug couldn't concentrate either. She was paying more attention to Chat than to Chess Queen.

"Princess! Watch out!"

Upon hearing Chat's warning, she turned her head just in time to avoid being hit by a ray that would have turned her into a pawn. A second later she processed his words.

For the second time in a month, Chat had destroyed the foundation of her world with the same word.

He had never called her Princess when she was wearing the mask. That nickname was reserved for Marinette only.

"You know who I am."

It was statement, not a question.

He nodded.

She was stunned. She didn't have the chance to say anything because they were interrupted by Chess Queen.

This was not the moment to analyze the 'Chat/Félix knowing her identity' situation. Right now, they had an akuma to defeat.

* * *

"Come with me. We need to talk. Right now," was the first thing she told him after the akuma had been taken care of. He had a very good idea of what she wanted them to talk about. He couldn't believe he had been so careless to call her 'princess' mid battle. At least he didn't call her by her real name or he would have exposed her identity to Hawk Moth.

Her voice didn't leave much room for argument, but he still tried.

"I'm about to destrans…"

"It doesn't matter. There is nothing to hide anymore. I know your identity and apparently you know mine."

That was new for him. She knew his identity. Since when? Why she didn't say anything before?

He followed her to an empty classroom, and she closed the door behind her. He had imagined this scenario before but he was sure this conversation would go in a very different direction than where his fantasies usually went.

"So, you know who I am," she stated awkwardly. She probably was as lost as he was about the best way to start this conversation.

"Yes, I know." He was planning on telling her anyway, but now there was another topic he wanted to talk about "Do you know who I am?"

His miraculous beeped. He had used cataclysm about ten minutes before she had used Lucky Charm. He was going to detransform first and he wanted to be sure she actually knew who he was. She could just be fibbing.

"Yes, I do Agreste"

Oh, she did know. Ok.

"Are we on last name basis now?"

"Were we ever on first name basis?"

He felt as if he was being slapped. Sure, they were not as close as Alya and her or Nino and him, but he had assumed they were friends. He had been working on accepting she didn't love him romantically, but he hoped they could at least be friends. How many times could he get his heart broken by the same girl?

His miraculous beeped.

"How long you have known?" She asked completely unaware of the pain she caused him.

"Since the battle against Janitonator."

"So, for a little more than a week then?"

He nodded. He half expected her to tell him off for knowing her identity for eight days and not mentioning anything. Then again, she knew his identity for who knows how long. "How long have you known mine?"

Beep.

"Since Bridgette's Sixteenth Birthday Party."

So, she had known his identity for like… three weeks? A month? He didn't remember when exactly Bridgette's Birthday Party had been. How she could have found out his identity then was a mystery to him. He didn't even attend that party. He remembered his father forced him to accompany him to a boring dinner with other designers.

"How?"

"After being called 'Princess' by Félix Agreste, it was not that hard to put the pieces together."

And it turned out Adrien had been right all along about how his identity would be revealed. Marinette probably asked Félix where he got that nickname from. Félix told her that's how Adrien had her saved on his phone.

Beep.

"Oh, I see."

"How did you find out it was me?"

That wasn't a topic he really wanted to get into. She was going to skin him alive when she heard how he purposely spied on her in order to find out her identity.

He was saving of answering by his miraculous beeping one last time.

He was surrounded by a green light.

He opened his eyes and he meet Ladybug's blue eyes. She looked absolutely shocked. He didn't understand why, as she already knew his identity.

"Hello Ladybug. I'm Chat Noir's kwami, my name is Plagg. By any chance do you have camembert with you?"

Oh, Plagg. His comments were always so timely.

Ladybug didn't reply. She was just staring at him gaping like a fish. Suddenly she was surrounded by a pink light and before his eyes stood Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Her miraculous hadn't beeped yet, which make him think she dropped her transformation on purpose. However, she still was pretty much non-responsive so who knew.

"Hello Chat Noir, I'm Tikki." In his humble opinion, Ladybug's kwami was way cuter than Plagg, but he may be biased due to the fact that Tikki had never woke him up at four in the morning because she was craving cheese. "Marinette doesn't have cheese, but Plagg and I can share my cookies."

"I don't fancy cookies."

"And I don't fancy sharing with you. I guess life is unfair like that," she replied without missing a beat, "anyway, let's give this two a little privacy, shall we?"

Tikki took Marinette's purse, and she and Plagg flew to the back of the classroom.

He stared at Marinette who was seriously pale. He didn't know what has gotten into her.

"A-Adrien!"

"Yes?"

"I thought you were Félix."

And that was the final straw. He felt as if he had been stabbed.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you then," he replied angrily.

"You think I'm disappointed?" She seemed somewhere between confused and annoyed.

"It'd be perfect if the guy you are in love with turned out to be your partner who is love with you. But alas, you are stuck with me as your partner. I'm sorry I'm not Félix."

"You love me?"

"I have always loved you My Lady and I've never been discreet about it."

"I suspected Chat had a crush on me, but you are Adrien and you say you love me and…and you are Adrien… I didn't know you are Chat…. You are Adrien." She was starting to ramble and she looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I just need a second." Marinette looked like she was re-starting like Windows Vista. "We kissed! You're Chat Noir, and we've kissed. I have kissed Adrien Agreste." She was rambling again. "The only guy I have ever kissed is Adrien Agreste!"

That got his attention.

"Didn't you kiss Félix?"

"I thought I had kissed Félix! Because I kissed Chat Noir. But you are Adrien and you are Chat Noir. So, I have never kissed Félix, I have only kissed you."

"Again, I'm sorry to disappoint you." The anger was long gone from his voice. He just sounded defeated. He was embarrassed about how pathetic his situation was and he really would rather examine the pattern on the floor than meet Marinette's eyes.

She cupped his face with her hands and made him meet her eyes.

"I'm glad it was not Félix under Chat's mask." She sounded so sincere. He wanted so bad to believe her. "You know, I have been in love with you for the longest time," she added thoughtfully.

"You're in love with me?" He could not believe what he was hearing. His luck was not that good.

"Yes, ever since you gave me your umbrella, but lately I've been forced to admit to myself I also fell for someone else." Oh, he knew it was too good to be true, there had to be a but somewhere.

"Oh, I see."

"Actually, I think fell for him a long time ago, but I'm only realizing it recently."

So, this was her way of telling him she was in love with him, but she also loved Félix. This was more than what he hoped he could get from her, yet his heart ached.

"And I was so torn, because on one hand I love Adrien, my kind friend from school, and on the other hand, I love Chat Noir, my goofy, flirty partner in crime."

Adrien heart stopped working altogether.

"So you can imagine that I'm elated to discover Chat Noir and Adrien Agreste are actually the same person."

"You love me? All of me?" Adrien was glad to discover he still had the ability to talk since he was pretty sure his brain was short-circuiting.

"All of you, only you." She put emphasis on 'only'. "Actually, I don't understand why you were so convinced I love Félix."

"You told me so, on patrol," he really wanted to believe her, but there were still many things that needed an explanation. "And then you called me Félix after we kissed."

"I don't remember telling you I was in love with Félix," she said slowly "I only told you I was thinking about him."

"Same difference. Then you kept talking about how great and handsome he was."

"I only told you that because I suspected Félix was Chat Noir. So I decided to do my best impersonation of Bri gushing about Félix to see your reaction," she explained. "Apparently I misinterpreted it, and I ended up convinced Chat was Félix. That's the reason why I called you Félix after we kissed the other day."

Adrien felt lighter than he had in years. He was pretty sure he was floating right now.

"So, you don't love Félix?"

"No, not at all."

"And you love me?" He knew he was repeating himself but he wanted to be absolutely sure.

"I love you," she said, giving him her brightest smile. "And tell me, do you love me? I mean you already told me you love me, but do you love all of me? Marinette included? Or do you only love Ladybug?"

Marinette sounded so confident when she asked him this, but upon meeting her eyes he could see how vulnerable she actually felt right now.

"All of you, princess!" he said enthusiastically. He was euphoric about discovering she loved him. "Marinette, Ladybug, Maribug, Buginette or whatever other name, is the same amazing girl that I love with all my heart."

"Good." She said before leaning on him and kissing him on the lips.

This was better than the last time he had kissed her.

The last time they kissed, he was heartbroken over Ladybug loving Félix, and he felt guilty about kissing Marinette, not knowing back then they were the same. The cherry on top was she was calling him by his cousin's name.

This time they were no secret identities or misunderstandings between them. She loved him, he loved her, and they both knew it. They deepened the kiss. He put his hands on her waist and she put her hands on the back of his neck, trying to put the other closer. Adrien's heart and stomach were doing gymnastics.

* * *

Bridgette woke up confused, in a hall she didn't recognize. She remembered she was being chased by the akuma and then…nothing.

She was sure they were still in Le Lycée Françoise Dupont, but she had never been in this part of the school and she had no idea how to reach the front door.

"Cheng? What happened?" She heard someone behind her ask. She could recognize that voice anywhere but she didn't remember being with him.

She turned her head and found an equally confused Félix Agreste.

She tried her best to ignore how good he looked. His hair was uncharacteristically disheveled and that make him look way sexier than usual, if possible. Right now it was not the moment to admire him; they were lost and confused. Plus, she had to remind herself she was trying to get over him.

"I think we got hit by the akuma and turned into pawns."

"I see," he replied casually, as if being turned into a pawn was an everyday occurrence. Well, it actually was an everyday experience since Hawk Moth started terrorizing Paris.

They walked together trying to find the front door. There was an awkward silence between them. They have no idea what to talk about. Things have been awkward between them since Bridgette started suspecting about the Félix/Marinette love affair.

Le Lycée Françoise Dupont really should consider handing maps to their visitors. Bridgette and Félix were just opening random doors hoping to found a student or a teacher who could point them the way. They opened a few doors but nobody seemed to be in the school. Everybody was probably in the gym or the schoolyard.

Bridgette opened her fifth classroom door until she found somebody. It took her two seconds to realize they were Adrien and Marinette.

Not just Adrien and Marinette. They seemed to be 'busy' right now. Busy was code for making out.

She stood there, frozen, for a few seconds. She wanted to cheer for her cousin; she had been in love with Adrien since forever.

She glanced at Félix who was just frozen in place. She had been so sure Félix was in love with Marinette, or was involved with her somehow. She didn't knew how to react to this turn of events.

On one hand she was glad Marinette didn't seem to be into Félix, in fact she looked pretty content with Adrien. On the other hand, she was worried about Félix being heartbroken.

A few seconds later common sense dawned and she realized Marinette and Adrien needed privacy and they had no business staring at them.

She closed the door and they kept looking for someone who could help them.

* * *

Adrien and Marinette's kiss was interrupted by the sound of the door closing.

Weird, as Adrien was sure he saw Marinette close the door when they entered the classroom.

They jumped apart, if someone caught the making out in the school, they'd be in trouble. They turned their heads to the door at the same time. The door was closed.

They shrugged and turned their heads to stare into each other eyes and started giggling.

"You haven't told me how you found out my identity," said Marinette, putting her hands around his neck again.

Adrien stole another kiss before answering. She was going to kill him anyway; he should at least enjoy his last minutes in this world.

* * *

Félix and Bridgette finally found the schoolyard thanks to a boy with red hair who was very kind to help them.

Félix wondered if he should talk to Bridgette about what they just saw. She was in love with Adrien; seeing Dupain-Cheng kissing him was probably an unpleasant experience.

He decided against it because, a) His people skills weren't the greatest and he probably was going to end up making her feel worse somehow and b) He was not strong enough to comfort her if she was crying about another man.

"So, Marinette and Adrien." Well, he decided not to mention it, but apparently she wanted to talk about it.

"Hardly a surprise, those two had had feelings for each other for a long time now." See, this is why Félix should not comfort anyone ever. He always said the most insensitive things.

Bridgette looked at him oddly.

"I'm sorry, I know this must be hard for you." That was not what he thought she would say.

"I am sorry?"

"I know you have feelings for Marinette, you don't need to pretend with me," she explained. That only confused him further. "That's why I decided to give up on you, you know? I didn't wanted to pine for a boy who was in love with my cousin."

She thought she was in love with Dupain-Cheng. Where she even got that idea was beyond him.

Suddenly everything made sense.

The only reason why she stopped seeking him was that she thought he was in love with Dupain-Cheng.

She was not in love with Adrien. The other day when he "accidentally" heard the conversation between Bridgette and Fontaine: they were talking about him, not Adrien.

Bridgette still loved him.

At least he hoped he was not reaching the wrong conclusion.

"So, I just wanted to let you know if you wanted to talk to somebody, I'm here," Bridgette was saying completely unaware of Félix's epiphany.

Oh Bridgette. She was so selfless; she was here, admitting she was still in love with him, yet she was still offering her shoulder for him to cry about another girl. Something he had admitted to himself, he was not strong enough to do. Was it possible to love someone as much as Félix loved Bridgette?

He wanted to kiss her so badly.

Félix could count on one hand the amount of times he had acted without thinking, and this was one of them. He leaned his head with the intention of kissing her. His lips was about to touch her, when she stopped him.

"What do you think you are doing?"

Honesty was the best policy.

"I wanted to kiss you Cheng, may I?"

"No, you may not," she replied firmly "You cannot kiss me just because you saw Marinette making out with Adrien. I'm not your consolation prize."

Oh yes, they still needed to clarify that little misunderstanding.

"I'm not in love with Dupain-Cheng. Why are you so convinced I am?"

He was actually curious.

Bridgette meditated the question for a second, and then replied.

"You called her princess."

"Did I? I don't remember."

"At my birthday party. We were dancing, she came to say goodbye and you called her Princess."

"I still don't remember, but I believe you." He was being honest; he did not really pay any attention to his interaction with Dupain-Cheng that night. "I meant nothing when I called her princess."

"You say you don't remember calling her princess and then you know you meant nothing by it?" She raised her eyebrow in a perfect imitation of his 'I-do-not-believe-you face'.

"I only call her princess because Adrien calls her princess, I must have slipped."

"Adrien calls Marinette Princess?" Bridgette actually looked happy with that tidbit of information.

"A bit of a corny nickname if you ask me, but yes, he does."

"Corny? I think it's sweet."

"Of course you'd think that Cheng," he replied fondly. "Now, there is a pressing matter we need to discuss. Earlier you mentioned you were trying to get over me, right?"

"I think I did."

"Were you succeeding?"

"Not at all."

"Great, because I'm in love with you, and I wanted to know if we were on the same page here."

She jumped to his arms and kissed him full on the lips.

* * *

 **From:** Félix

 **To:** Adrien

 _4:17pm_

I wanted to apologize about what I said earlier. I am not romantically interested in Dupain-Cheng, and she is not interested in me whatsoever.

 **To:** Félix

 **From:** Adrien

 _4:18pm_

NBD. I already talked 2 Marinette. And I know ur not into her either. Everybody saw you scking faces with Bridgette on the schoolyard 2day.

 **From:** Félix

 **To:** Adrien

 _4:19pm_

Fuck you! As if you weren't making out with Dupain-Cheng in a classroom today.

 **To:** Félix

 **From:** Adrien

 _4:21pm_

That I was, and I'm not even going to ask how u knew that.

 **To:** Félix

 **From:** Adrien

 _4:21pm_

Just FYI I'm saving a screenshot of your last text, as evidence that you are in fact capable of cussing.

 **From:** Félix

 **To:** Adrien

 _4:22pm_

Fuck. You.

 **The End**

I want to thank my beta, the lovely **Rasiaa** for helping me with this project.

And I want to thank you guys for reading this and leaving reviews and kudos. You are the best!

 **On a serious note:** May I ask you to do something? Please, if you have the time, go check #SOSNICARAGUA on Twitter. I don't know if there is much info in English, but we are living in a dictatorship and we want to spread the word. Ortega wants us silent.

Love

Teté


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